SURVIVING JIT: CONTROL AND RESISTANCE IN A JAPANESE TRANSPLANT

This research considers the process of management control and workers' actions in a Japanese-owned consumer electronics plant sited in England. the data are drawn from a period of participant observation which enabled the author to explore, in detail, the style and extent of management control and worker behaviour, and the nature of workplace relations at the plant. the author found that the incorporation of just-in-time JIT) and total quality management (TQM) into clearly defined management objectives had allowed a more complete combination of the control of labour with management's economic goals than that apparent under piece rate systems of control. Worker resistance and 'misbehaviour' persist, but in ways which are increasingly fragmentary and marginal.